portillo pounces to deny dortmund published: wednesday 26 february 2003, 0.56cet
bv borussia dortmund 1-1 real madrid cf javier portillo's late goal keeps madrid in contention.
javier portillo struck deep into added time to earn real madrid cf a crucial point away to bv borussia dortmund in this breathtaking uefa champions league group c tie, just when it seemed jens lehmann's heroics in the home goal had won it for the german champions.
lehmann superb lehmann, just as he had been in the 2-1 defeat in madrid last week, was superb. helped by the hugely impressive ahmed madouni and his central defensive partner chistian wörns, the goalkeeper was instrumental in ensuring jan koller's 23rd-minute strike was the difference for so long in a pulsating match.
rosický out with ac milan having beaten fc lokomotiv moskva 1-0 to win the section, madrid and dortmund were left to fight for second spot. the early advantage looked to have gone madrid's way as tomáš rosický missed out through injury. but in his absence, sebastian kehl and stefan reuter established control in the centre.
early chance in the first minute ewerthon caught the madrid defence square, forcing iker casillas off his line to clear. it was a portent of things to come as dortmund harried and outworked madrid. the visitors were on the back foot, but with their first attack of the match almost took the lead. ronaldo lofted a pass over wörns and into the path of raúl gonzález, whose shot was saved by lehmann. the ball broke back to the striker, but madouni was across to block.
koller strikes it was dortmund, however, who were in the ascendancy. ewerthon's rasping drive was beaten out by casillas, then the tireless koller shot wide, but two minutes after that the czech striker's persistence paid off, kehl chipping through to koller who fired in from a tight angle.
ronaldo close stung but not stirred, madrid hit back. ronaldo just failed to connect with roberto carlos's low cross and then, on 38 minutes, was unfortunate not to win a penalty under pressure from wörns. the tempo only increased after the break as madrid strode forward. lehmann was at his best six minutes after the restart, saving low from ronaldo. four minutes later kehl and wörns combined to somehow block raúl as he squared to shoot.
ewerthon miss but as madrid pressed, gaps opened and dortmund attacked on the break. a powerful torsten frings shot in the 62nd minute was saved at full-stretch by casillas. roberto carlos then slipped trying to clear, allowing koller to pull the ball back for ewerthon who, unmarked, headed wide from six metres. how that miss would come back to haunt dortmund.
madrid press madrid drove forward but lehmann kept them at bay. roberto carlos's stinging free-kick from just outside the area was somehow turned over on 65 minutes. nine minutes later the keeper was again off his line to block at the feet of ronaldo.
portillo blow under intense pressure the westfalenstadion groaned when four minutes of added time were shown and home hearts were broken soon after, zinedine zidane squaring for portillo to fire low past the despairing lehmann to put madrid in the driving seat for a place in the last eight.
